Providing service selection and obtaining services

ABSTRACT

Plural service providers each provide services to one or more multicast service systems, which forward service sets formed by bundling received services to a respective multicast operator. The service sets are then multicast in IP datacasting bursts, and can be received by a mobile terminal. Each service includes one or more service components, which have different media formats, e.g. audio, video, game, software, chat, offline web page, etc. The service components include content data and service identification data. A service set schedule giving timing information relating to the transmission of the IP datacasting burst and the transmission frequency is created. An IP burst begins with ESG data. The service set schedule may be part of the ESG data or it may be transmitted separately. The mobile terminal can use the timing information to tune the appropriate channel at the appropriate time to receive and then to decode service identification data relating to a required service, and subsequently obtain required service components thereof. The service components are stored in portions of the memory. Service selection is enabled by a user interface.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method of and a system for providing serviceselection at a mobile terminal. The invention relates also to a mobileterminal comprising means for obtaining required service components of aservice, and to a method of operating a mobile terminal comprisingobtaining required service components of a service selection data on adisplay, and a mobile terminal comprising a controller arranged to orderhierarchically services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The deployment of advanced high bit-rate mobile networks has opened upnew opportunities for delivering services in a way that was not possiblewith earlier, second generation, wireless networks. Third generationsystems such as Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS) will enablethe delivery of new digital services such as video calls and theplayback of multimedia applications that are comprised of audio andvideo clips. This may also be enabled by lower bit-rate systems such asHigh Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) and General Packet RadioService (GPRS) specified for use with the Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) wireless standard.

Although the high bit-rates of UMTS systems are promising for theprovision of digital services, many estimates forecast that thesesystems can reliably deliver data rates of only 64 to 384 kbit/s tomoving mobile terminals, as opposed to up to 2 Mbit/s for stationaryenvironments. The moving terminal rates provide fairly good performancefor delivering high quality digital audio and acceptable quality movingimage clips. However, at these transfer rates, it will be difficult tohandle very highly data-intensive tasks such as delivering high qualityfull-motion video and transferring very large data files to mobileterminals. Attempts at downloading very large data files is likely tolead to inconveniently long downloading times, and is unlikely to be themost economical in terms of cost per megabyte. Accordingly, alternativebroadband delivery channels that could provide a practical solution forhighly data-intensive tasks in terms of lower cost and convenience forthe parties involved have been investigated.

One such delivery channel that has shown promise is Digital VideoBroadcasting (DVB). DVB-T, which is related to DVB-C (cable) and DVB-S(satellite), is the terrestrial variant of the DVB standard and is awireless point-to-multipoint data delivery mechanism developed fordigital TV broadcasting and based on the Moving Picture ExpertsGroup(MPEG)-2 transport stream for the transmission of video andsynchronized audio. DVB-T has the capability of efficiently transmittinglarge amounts of data over a radio channel to a high number of users ata low cost (the cost being low when compared to data transmissionthrough mobile telecommunication networks using e.g. UMTS/GPRS). DVB-Tdata rates have been shown to provide up to 4-20 Mbit/s, where the lowerend of the range corresponds to reception within a very high speed (300km/h) moving receiver. Another advantage of DVB-T is that it has provento be exceptionally robust, particularly in that it works well withreceivers moving in geographic conditions that would normally affectother types of transmissions, such as with the rapid changes ofreception conditions found when moving in hilly or mountainous terrain.

Other examples of broadband data broadcast networks include thatprovided under the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). BothATSC and DVB utilize a containerisation technique in which content fortransmission is placed into MPEG-2 packets which act as data containers.Thus, the containers can be utilized to transport any suitably digitiseddata including, but not limited to High Definition TV, multiple channelStandard definition TV (PAL/NTSC or SECAM), and broadband multimediadata and interactive services.

The combined use of mobile telecommunications with a broadband deliverychannel such as DVB-T has been proposed in the past in order to achieveefficient delivery of digital services to users on the move. This wouldtake advantage of existing infrastructures in the effort to providepersonal communications (already prevalent) and the growing demand forInternet access, together with the expected rise of digitalbroadcasting, so that users can receive these services with a singledevice. Furthermore, DVB-T is a cross-platform standard that is sharedby many countries thereby avoiding many issues caused by frequencycompatibility and roaming. The combination of mobile telecommunicationsand a relatively very low cost digital broadband channel provides thepossibility of interactive services including uni-directional andbi-directional services such as audio and video streaming (TV & Radio),file downloads and advanced gaming applications etc. This allows someflexibility in the way different media content is combined, deliveredand consumed.

Because of the nature of the crossmedia delivery, different contentformats from one content provider could easily be unidentifiable by theend user, which reduces the motivation of an individual content providerto provide content to content aggregators or service providers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodof providing service selection at a mobile terminal, the methodcomprising: transmitting a plurality of services, each of the servicescomprising one or more service components, at least some of the servicecomponents having different media formats, the service components for agiven service being transmitted in a time-sliced manner at a givenfrequency; generating service identification data relating servicecomponents at a given frequency to services and identifying the mediaformat of each service component; repeatedly transmitting the serviceidentification data at the frequency carrying the corresponding servicecomponents; and repeatedly transmitting information relating to thetiming of transmissions of the service identification data.

This can allow a mobile terminal to use the timing information to tuneto the frequency at the appropriate time to decode serviceidentification data relating to a required service and subsequentlyobtain required service components thereof, potentially resulting in asaving in power usage. The inclusion in the service information data ofthe media format allows it to be consumed easily by a terminal. Thetiming information may include data relating to IP datacasting burstparameters such as, for example the start time of the IP burst, theduration of the burst, the time to the next burst, etc.

Although the service identification data relates to services and servicecomponents at a given frequency, a mobile terminal may receive multipleservice components from a single service at different frequencies. Thiscan occur for example if different service components are received underdifferent cells.

The timing information may be transmitted in a network different thanthat used for the service identification data information transmission.Here it may be performed in response to an inquiry from a mobileterminal, which may be using the different network.

The method preferably further comprises receiving the serviceidentification data at a mobile terminal; and at the mobile terminal,hierarchically arranging the services including the service componentsfrom the received service identification data.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided asystem for providing service selection at a mobile terminal, the systemcomprising: means for transmitting a plurality of services, each of theservices comprising one or more service components, at least some of theservice components having different media formats, the servicecomponents for a given service being arranged to be transmitted in atime-sliced manner at a given frequency; means for transmitting serviceidentification data relating service components at a given frequency toservices and identifying the media format of each service component;means for repeatedly transmitting the service identification data at thefrequency carrying the corresponding service components; and means forrepeatedly transmitting information relating to the timing oftransmissions of the service identification data; whereby a mobileterminal can use the timing information to tune to an appropriatefrequency at an appropriate time to decode service identification datarelating to a required service and subsequently obtain required servicecomponents thereof, potentially resulting in a saving in power usage.

Crossmedia data, i.e. data having many different media formats, hastraditionally been difficult to manage and identify from an end-userspoint of view. The invention can provide the bundling and aggregating ofdata having different media formats into bigger entities, aggregates orsets that are easier to identify by an end-user, thus making the accessof relevant services or service components more simple. Through one userinterface or application the user operating a single terminal can accessservice components having different media formats. A service providercan use one channel to transfer all electronic services or media formatsto end users.

The invention allows the same content to be sent in the systems ofmultiple operators and to the customers of different operators. This islikely in most cases to result in an increase in cost-efficiency.Therefore one service, having one identifying address, can be accessedby the customers of one or more operators, and potentially from one ormore service sets. This can provide for the wider distribution ofcontent than that which might be possible without using the invention.

A service component may be defined as an item of consumable content. Inthis case, all consumable content items may be defined as servicecomponents.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobileterminal, comprising: means for receiving at least one repeatedtransmission of information relating to the timing of transmissions ofservice identification data; means for using the timing information totune to an appropriate frequency at an appropriate time to decodeservice identification data, the service identification data relatingservice components at the frequency to services and identifying themedia format of each service component; and means for subsequentlyobtaining, from service components transmitted in a time-sliced mannerat the given frequency, required service components of a service.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided amethod of operating a mobile terminal, comprising: receiving at leastone repeated transmission of information relating to the timing oftransmissions of service identification data; using the timinginformation to tune to an appropriate frequency at an appropriate timeto decode service identification data, the service identification datarelating service components at the frequency to services and identifyingthe media format of each service component; and subsequently obtaining,from service components transmitted in a time-sliced manner at the givenfrequency, required service components of a service.

The method preferably comprises using the service identification data togenerate a service guide for one or more services.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a methodof providing service selection data on a display, comprising: receivingservice identification data relating service components at a givenfrequency to services and relating services at the given frequency toservice sets; hierarchically arranging services including theappropriate service components; and displaying the different servicesets, services or service components.

The arranging step can comprise using data items describing the variousservice components for categorising received content items. Here, thecontent items preferably are categorised according to content type.Alternatively or in addition, the services are arranged in an orderaccording to their timing.

A method of receiving a content item according to the inventioncomprises: providing service selection data using the above method; andfollowing selection of a displayed service set, service or servicecomponent, tuning to the correct frequency at the appropriate time whenthe selected service set, service or service component is beingtransmitted.

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobileterminal comprising: means arranged to receive service identificationdata relating service components at a given frequency to services andrelating services at the given frequency to service sets; a controllerarranged to order hierarchically services including the appropriateservice components; and means arranged to display the different servicesets, services or service components.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates the authoring of multicast service sets, and theprovision of services to a mobile terminal;

FIG. 2 illustrates how service components are transmitted on a channelusing time-slicing in one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3A shows schematically one example of the hierarchy under whichservice components can be found;

FIG. 3B shows an example of a partial content of one service;

FIG. 4 shows schematically the arrangement of selected hardware andsoftware components forming part of a DVB-T client according to theinvention and constituting the mobile terminal shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5 to 8 illustrate examples of successive screen-shots of a displayforming part of the user interface of the mobile terminal of FIG. 4, andin particular:

FIG. 5 illustrates how the layout includes a service selector area and aservice display area;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the selection of one service within ina service set in the display;

FIG. 7 illustrates the display of services forming part of the serviceset selected in FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 illustrates the display of service components forming part of theservice selected in FIG. 7 in a selectable manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A multicast service system bundles certain services together into aservice set. Each service set is associated with identifying dataincluding an identifier unique to the service set. The identifying dataalso includes a number of different type metadata items both for theservice set and for the services included in the service set. Theidentifier and the metadata are preferably transmitted in a table formatin the transport stream. The table can be similar to the tables used inDVB-T, such as for example the bouquet association table (BAT) of thestandard ETSI EN 300 468 (the '468 standard). The identifier andmetadata items are preferably presented as descriptors like thosedefined in the '468 standard.

One multicast service system may bundle services from one or moreservice operators into one or more service sets. These services maycomprise live content and/or stored content. The multicast servicesystem may forward the bundled service set to one or more multicastoperators, which can then transmit the forwarded service sets asmulticasts to receivers in IP (Internet Protocol) datacasting bursts.This is illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, first to fifth service providers 10-14 are shown,each of which is a provider of live content, of stored content or ofmixed content. The first to third service providers 10-12 provideservices to a first multicast service system 16. The third to fifthservice providers 12-14 provide services to a second multicast servicesystem 17. Each of the multicast service systems 16, 17 forwards servicesets formed by bundling received services to a respective multicastoperator 18, 19. The service sets are then multicast in IP datacastingbursts 15, and can be received by a mobile terminal 20.

Each service provider may provide one or more services. Each servicecomprises one or more service components. Each of the service componentsmay have a different media format. A service component could be in anyformat, for example audio, video, game, software, chat, offline webpage, carousels and so on. The service components may comprise liveand/or stored content. The service components comprise, in addition tothe content data, a number of data items associated with and describingthe component. The data items may also comprise metadata items. In oneembodiment of the invention the descriptive data items and metadataitems may be transmitted or signalled in table format. The table may forexample be similar to the Service Description Table (SDT) or the EventInformation Table (SIT) as described in the '468 standard. Some or allof the data items preferably are presented in the same way as thedescriptors defined in the '468 standard. In addition to the tables anddescriptors defined in the '468 standard, the multicast service systemmay associate one or more of the service sets and/or the servicecomponents with other data items, e.g. data relating: to a bandwidth forthe service set and/or the service component, to the file size of adownloadable software file, to parental control, to the price of aservice, to keywords, sources or genre, to the ordering of a service setand/or the service itself, and so on. Bandwidth can be allocated to aservice, to a service component or to a service set.

In one embodiment of the invention the multicast service system 16,17creates a service set schedule, which comprises information relating tothe timing of the transmission of the IP datacasting burst. The timinginformation may include data relating to IP datacasting burst parameterssuch as, for example the start time of the IP burst, the duration of theburst, the time to the next burst, etc. The service set schedule alsomay comprise information concerning the carrier transmission frequencyof the service set.

The service components (S11, . . . , S1 m; S21, . . . , S2 n) relatingto a particular service may be transmitted in a burst over a DVB-Tnetwork. This is illustrated in FIG. 2. First and second bursts 30, 31have a duration (‘duration 1’, ‘duration 2’), defined by start and endtimes (‘start time 1’, ‘start time 2’; ‘end time 1, ‘end time 2’). Thebursts 30, 31 are transmitted with an interval (‘interval 1’) betweenthe end of the first burst and the start of the second burst. In thisexample each burst commences with ESG data (ESG 1, ESG 2).

The content of consecutive bursts 30, 31 may be the same, or they may beat least partly different. Instead of a burst containing all servicecomponents for a set and containing service components relating only tothat set, one burst may comprise any number of the service components ofa service, or it may contain service components from one or moreservices or service sets. The order in which the service components andthe ESG data are in the burst is determined by the multicast servicesystem or by the multicast operator.

The service set schedule may be part of the ESG data or it may betransmitted separately.

The data items associated with and describing the service set, theservices and the service components when combined with the service setschedule comprise Electronic Service Guide (ESG) data.

The ESG data or parts thereof may also be transmitted through aseparate, second network. This second network would normally be a mobilephone network, such as GSM, GPRS, 3G or UMTS, but might be a WLAN or anyother communications network. This second network preferably iswireless, but might instead be wired. The ESG data transmitted via thesecond network may be used by a terminal receiving the ESG data forcontrolling the terminal (and a receiver forming part thereof), for thereception of IP datacasting bursts.

If transmitted over DVB-T, the ESG data may be transmitted on an IPControl Channel (IP-CC). The ESG data includes metadata about theservices, such as what types of services are available, how the servicecontent can be received and how it can be consumed. This metadata issent as a set of announcement files using IP based protocols. In oneembodiment, the ESG data on the IP Control Channel is transmittedrepeatedly in carousel-style.

In one embodiment of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B, theavailable services are arranged hierarchically. FIG. 3A shows oneexample of the hierarchical structure of the services and FIG. 3B showsan example of a partial content of one service. At the highest level,the hierarchical structure contains categories. There can be many levelsof categories. The categories classify the service sets. Service setscombine the same kind of services together, although they can insteadrelate to an identifiable entity, for example CNN(RTM), or BBC(RTM). Aservice set is owned by a Service Provider (SP) or a Content Provider(CP). One CP or SP can have many service sets. One service can belong tomany different service sets but all the services of one service set arepreferably owned by the same SP or CP. Services are the lowest level ofthe hierarchy in this example. The hierarchy of the available servicesis quite static. Services and service sets can change, but changes areinfrequent and no end time for the service is usually announced to theuser. The ESG data contains metadata describing the level in question(i.e. whether it is a category, service set or service) and links tomore detailed information. A service set can have a default service,i.e. a service which is opened as the service set is entered, identifiedby the metadata. A service set may also be associated in the userinterface with a button or menu behind which there is a list of includedservices.

The more dynamic part of ESG information is the program part. Theprogram part includes service sessions, which are instances of servicesand which have a start time and a stop time. Service sessions compriseservice items or service components. Service items are “pieces” ofcontent that can be individually consumed. All the service items of theservice session are transmitted using same kind of transmissionparameters. As with service sessions, service items can have their ownstart time and stop time inside the service session. It depends on themulticast operator 18, 19 whether the schedules of the service itemsmade are to be shown to the users. After transmission of the servicesession, the information related to sessions and items is no longer ofinterest, so is not broadcast anymore.

This hierarchical structure makes it easier for the user of the terminal20 to find the services that they are interested in, and also makes iteasier for the operator 18, 19 to schedule the sessions so that theservice sessions that are deemed to be likely to interest the samepeople overlap as little as possible.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3A, a service category could be“News” with a service set “CNN News Watch” and under that a service“Live Update”. The service News.CNNNewsWatch.LiveUpdate contains servicesessions, for example, a program about the latest business news, asshown in FIG. 3B. The service sessions includes items, which can be, forinstance, news related to different parts of the world. If the itemsalso are scheduled and the schedules are shown to the user, the user canwatch the news only when a part or parts of interest is beingtransmitted.

There are two kinds of announcements related to ESG information that istransmitted: hierarchy announcements and service session announcements.The division is based on the described ESG parts. The transmission ofthe announcement files can be done as continuous or carousel-typetransmission, i.e., as soon as all the files of the announcements havebeen sent, they are sent again. There may be a pause between twoconsecutive transmissions. In one embodiment of the invention theterminal can start listening to the announcements when it needs the ESGinformation. The two kinds of announcements may be combined or sentseparately. In another embodiment of the invention item announcementsmay also be transmitted but in one embodiment of the invention they mustbe retrieved through an interaction channel such as a mobile phonecommunication network, i.e. they are not broadcast as are the otherannouncements.

To be able to show the ESG information to the user, the terminal mustperform ESG discovery and receive the information e.g. via IP-CC.

In one exemplary embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 4, the mobileterminal 20, only partly shown, is implemented as a DVB-T client havinga DVB-T receiver. The receiver has an air interface with the DVB-Tnetwork. The terminal 20 gets the information R from the DVB-T networkas IP datacasting bursts through the receiver. When the terminal 20 isturned on and the ESG information should be received for the first time,the information between the network and the terminal flows as follows:

The receiving part of the terminal 20 locates the desired network. Thefrequencies are scanned through until the desired DVB-T network isfound. The network can be the first network found, a user definednetwork, a network configured to the terminal etc. The receiver thenreceives and decodes the Network Information Table (NIT). In thiscontext, the receiver also may locate other information, e.g. the IP/MACNotification Table (INT). One DVB-T network may carry several channels.IP platforms can be considered as channels. The terminal may extractfrom the received NIT table information concerning which channels areavailable. The terminal 20 then selects a channel and may then accessthe available services.

In order to make sure that the user does not have outdated information,the information must be updated every now and then. The announcementsmay be sent continuously, using a carousel, thus the terminal could bemade to listen to the latest announcements all the time. However,because it can be important to save power, each announcements contain anexpiry time, which is an absolute time indicating when the next versionis due. The new version is not necessarily different from the oldversion, but it is guaranteed that there will not be any changes duringthe validity of one version. The update interval is different for thedifferent parts of the ESG because the probability of a change isdifferent. For example, the update interval of the hierarchy usually ismuch longer than the update interval for the sessions. The expiry timemay be used for controlling the receiver to turn-on. In particular, theterminal need only receive announcements when the currently storedannouncement is just about to or has just expired.

Therefore, after receiving ESG information for the first time, if theterminal does not move from one network area to the area of anothernetwork, the terminal need only listen to the announcements when it istime for the update. In case of a hierarchy file update, the terminalreceives the hierarchy file, then determines if the modification time ofthe hierarchy is later than the modification time of the hierarchy inits database. If the received hierarchy is newer, it is updated to thedatabase. Otherwise the terminal just marks down the next expiry time.When checking the hierarchy file, the terminal also reads the expirytime for the session announcements and main page carousels. However,because the update interval for them can be shorter than the updateinterval for the hierarchy, also the update interval may be given forsessions such that the following expiry times can be calculated withoutchecking the hierarchy file.

If unexpected updates occur during the update interval, the terminal canbe informed through an alert service that the ESG information should beupdated. This can occur in any suitable way. For example, the alertservice can be a carousel with notifications to the terminal 20 or tothe end-user.

If the terminal moves to another network area, the terminal mustimmediately start to update the information according to theannouncements in that area.

Operation of the mobile terminal 20, and in particular a user interfacethereof in one embodiment of the invention, is now described withreference to FIGS. 4 to 8. In these Figures, the same reference numeralsare used for like elements. Referring to FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 20,only partly shown, comprises generally a memory 21 which is connected toa service data handler 22 and to a user interface 23. The user interface23 includes a display 24 and a browsing selector 25, for example akeypad or a touch-screen input device. The data handler 22 is formedfrom a service set combiner application 26 and an ESG handlingapplication 27. The memory 21 is arranged to store N service components,three of which are illustrated at 28-30, along with the serviceidentification data 31-33 corresponding thereto. The memory 21 alsostores ESG data in an ESG data storage area 34.

The mobile terminal 20 receives and stores the IP datacasting burstcomprising ESG data and the service components and the associated datain a memory. In one embodiment of the invention the received data isbuffered prior to storing it. On the basis of the ESG data and theassociated data items, the terminal 20 is able to associate the servicecomponents with the appropriate service sets. The user of the terminal20 may browse and select the received content for viewing or rendering.The data items describing the various service components can be used forsetting up a hierarchy for categorising the received content items.Further the data in the service set schedule may be used for arrangingthe services in order according to their timing (now, next, today, nextweek, etc.).

The mobile terminal 20 can extract from the received ESG data and thereceived service set schedule information concerning the timing of thetransmissions and concerning the carrier transmission frequency orfrequencies of the service sets or service components. Followingselection of a service set or service component, the terminal 20 istherefore able to tune to the correct frequency at the appropriate timewhen the desired or selected service set or service component is beingtransmitted. The terminal can remain turned off at other times in orderto save power.

As described below, the different service sets are shown displayed inthe user interface of the terminal. The user interface also comprisesbrowsing and selecting means.

The Electronic Service Guide (ESG) contains information about theservices available. Through the information in the ESG, the user canselect the services and items he/she is interested in and find storeditems on the terminal. However, the terminal must first get theinformation from the network, using a mechanism so-called ESG discovery.

The terminal 20 operates to store received service components and thecorresponding service identification data, as well as the received ESGdata, in the appropriate parts of the memory 21. The ESG data may bereceived over the DVB-T network, or through a mobile telephone network,illustrated at 35. The service set combiner application 26 uses the datato form service sets including only the services which are intended toform part of the respective service sets. Some of the service componentsand the corresponding service identification data stored in the terminal20 may have been received previously, perhaps when the mobile terminalwas receiving transmissions in another cell. In one embodiment of theinvention these earlier received service components (whether or notreceived under another cell) may be used together with servicecomponents which are received under the current cell as inputs to theservice data handler 22. The data bursts in different cells may betransmitted using the same frequency (SFN—single frequency network), ordifferent frequencies may be used in the different cells. The hierarchydata is used to categorise different content types. Service componentscan be included in more than one service set. Next, the data is sortedin an appropriate manner.

Service selection is enabled by the user interface 23. In one embodimentof the invention the display 24 might be like that of FIG. 5 initially.Here, an information or advertisement area 40 is located next to aservice display area 41 within a large window 45. On the right side ofthe display 24 are included a number of ‘keys’ of which three ‘keys’42-44 are shown, in practice areas of the display which can be selectedusing a stylus or the like. In this example the ‘keys’ 42-44 if selectedwould provide access to a services menu, to a full screen displaycontrol function or to a homepage of the present multicast operatorrespectively. The display 24 once the services ‘key’ 42 has beenoperated is illustrated in FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 6, illustrating one embodiment of the invention, itcan be seen that the available options are listed vertically in a window50 included at the left side of the display 24 within the large window45. Since ‘services’ has been selected, the available categories arelisted in a second window 51, placed to the right of the first window50, but also within the large window 45. In this example, further thecategory ‘Music’ has been selected by a user of the terminal 20, using astylus or key input. This has revealed in a third window 52 placed tothe right of the other windows, and preferably close to the secondwindow 51, a list of the services sets which fall into the category‘music’, which in this example are MTVE and NETMUSIC, service sets.Selection of the service set called MTVE causes the terminal to providethe display illustrated in FIG. 7. The made selections are shown in thisexample highlighted in the display.

Referring to FIG. 7, the ‘keys’ 42-44 from the FIG. 5 display are againpresented, along with a window 60 in which are listed the servicesforming part of the service set called MTVE. Selection of one of theseservices, in this case the service entitled ‘MTVE Java Games’ andlabeled 61, occurs by highlighting the service and then by activating an‘OK’ input 62 at the bottom of the window 60. This results in thepresentation in the display of the service components which form part ofthe service. This is shown in FIG. 8. The selection may be cancelled byactivating a ‘Cancel’ input at the bottom of the window 62, wherein theuser is taken back to the previous view illustrated in FIG. 6.

In FIG. 8, the available service components are included in a servicecomponents window 70 in the display 24 and are shown underlined in thisexample, since these are items of consumable content. The consumablecontent items may be displayed by using other graphical effects such aswith different colours, different fonts, or even as animated or with acombination of such graphical means. The ‘keys’ 42-44 from the FIG. 5display may be again presented. A service component is selected forconsumption through use of a stylus to operate an area of touch screencorresponding to the displayed name of the service component, or throughthe use of a keypad etc.

Alternatively to presenting the service components using a hierarchicalmenu system as described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8, the mobileterminal 20 may instead sort the service components by genre, by thetiming of the transmission of the service components, or in any otherconvenient manner. Sorting is carried out by the mobile terminal 20using the service information data.

1. A method comprising: causing transmission of a plurality of services,each of the services comprising one or more service components, at leastsome of the service components having different media formats, theservice components for a given service being transmitted in atime-sliced manner on a given channel, wherein the service componentsare transmitted in bursts with an interval between end of a first burstand start of a second burst, and content of consecutive bursts is thesame or at least partly different; generating service identificationdata relating service components to services on that channel; repeatedlycausing transmission of the service identification data on the channel;and repeatedly causing transmission of information relating to timing ofa subsequent transmission of the service identification data and a givenfrequency of the channel at which the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data will occur, wherein the method is a methodof providing service selection for a mobile terminal.
 2. The method asclaimed in claim 1, in which the generating service identification datarelating service components to services on that channel includesgenerating data identifying the media format of each service component.3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the generating serviceidentification data relating service components to services comprisesidentifying the media format of each service component.
 4. The method asclaimed in claim 1, further comprising causing transmission of theinformation relating to the timing of the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data in a network different than that used forthe transmitting the service identification data on the channel.
 5. Themethod as claimed in claim 4, wherein transmitting the informationrelating to the timing of the subsequent transmission of the serviceidentification data is performed in response to an inquiry from a mobileterminal.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein transmitting theinformation relating to the timing of the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data is performed in response to an inquirytransmitted from the mobile terminal using the different network.
 7. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, comprising using the serviceidentification data to generate a service guide for one or moreservices.
 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:receiving the service identification data at a mobile terminal; and atthe mobile terminal, hierarchically arranging the services including theservice components from the received service identification data.
 9. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method is acomputer-implemented method and at least one step is performed by acomputer.
 10. A computer readable medium encoded with instructions that,when executed by a computer, perform the steps of claim
 1. 11. Anapparatus comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit a pluralityof services, each of the services comprising one or more servicecomponents, at least some of the service components having differentmedia formats, the service components for a given service being arrangedto be transmitted in a time-sliced manner on given channel, wherein theservice components are arranged to be transmitted in bursts with aninterval between end of a first burst and start of a second burst, andcontent of consecutive bursts is the same or at least partly different;and a generator configured to generate service identification datarelating service components on the channel to services, wherein thetransmitter is configured to repeatedly transmit the serviceidentification data on the channel, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to repeatedly transmit information relating to timing of asubsequent transmission of the service identification data and a givenfrequency of the channel at which the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data will occur, and wherein the apparatus isconfigured to provide service selection for a mobile terminal.
 12. Theapparatus as claimed in claim 11, in which the generator is configuredto generate data identifying the media format of each service component.13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to transmit the media format of each service component. 14.The apparatus as claimed in claims 11, wherein the transmitter isconfigured to transmit the information relating to the timing of thesubsequent transmission of the service identification data in a networkdifferent than that used for the service identification data informationtransmission.
 15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein theinformation relating to the timing of the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data is transmitted in response to an inquiryfrom the mobile terminal.
 16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15,wherein the inquiry from the mobile terminal uses the different network.17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the mobile terminal isarranged to use the service identification data to generate a serviceguide for one or more services.
 18. The apparatus as claimed in claim11, wherein the mobile terminal is arranged to receive the serviceidentification data, and to use it to arrange hierarchically theservices including the service components.
 19. An apparatus comprising:a receiver configured to receive at least one repeated transmission ofinformation relating to timing of a subsequent transmission of serviceidentification data and a given frequency of a channel at which thesubsequent transmission of the service identification data will occur; atuner configured to use the information to tune to the channel at anappropriate time to decode service identification data, the serviceidentification data relating service components on the channel toservices; and a processor configured to subsequently obtain, fromservice components transmitted in a time-sliced manner on the channel,required service components of a service, wherein the service componentsare arranged to be received in bursts with an interval between end of afirst burst and start of a second burst, and content of consecutivebursts is the same or at least partly different, and the apparatus is amobile terminal.
 20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein theservice identification data relates service components on the channel toservices.
 21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein the serviceidentification data identifies the media format of each servicecomponent.
 22. A method comprising: receiving at least one repeatedtransmission of information relating to timing of a subsequenttransmission of service identification data and a given frequency of achannel at which the subsequent transmission of the serviceidentification data will occur; using the information to tune to thechannel at an appropriate time to decode service identification data,the service identification data relating service components at afrequency to services; and subsequently obtaining, from servicecomponents transmitted in a time-sliced manner on the channel, requiredservice components of a service, wherein the service components arereceived in bursts with an interval between end of a first burst andstart of a second burst, and content of consecutive bursts is the sameor at least partly different, and the method is a method of operating amobile terminal.
 23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein theservice identification data relates service components on the channel toservices.
 24. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the serviceidentification data identifies the media format of each servicecomponent.
 25. The method as claimed in claim 24, further comprisingusing the service identification data to generate a service guide forone or more services.
 26. The method as claimed in claim 22, whereinhierarchically arranging services comprises using data items describingthe various service components for catergorizing received content items.27. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein the content items arecategorized according to content type.
 28. A method comprising:providing service selection data using the method of claim 22; andfollowing selection of a displayed service set, service or servicecomponent, tuning to the correct channel at the appropriate time whenthe selected service set, service or service component is beingtransmitted.
 29. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the methodis a computer-implemented method and at least one step is performed by acomputer.
 30. A method comprising: receiving service identification datarelating service components at a given frequency to services andrelating services at the given frequency to service sets, the servicecomponents for a given service being transmitted in a time-sliced manneron a given channel, wherein the service components are received inbursts with an interval between end of a first burst and start of asecond burst, and content of consecutive bursts is the same or at leastpartly different; receiving information relating to timing of asubsequent transmission of the service identification data and a givenfrequency of the channel at which the subsequent transmission of theservice identification data will occur; hierarchically arrangingservices including the appropriate service components; and displayingthe different service sets, services or service components, wherein themethod is a method of providing service selection data on a display. 31.The method as claimed in claim 30, wherein the method is acomputer-implemented method and at least one step is performed by acomputer.
 32. An apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to receiveservice identification data relating service components on a givenchannel to services and relating services on the given channel toservice sets, the service components for a given service arranged to bereceived in a time-sliced manner on the given channel, wherein theservice components are arranged to be transmitted in bursts with aninterval between end of a first burst and start of a second burst, andcontent of consecutive bursts is the same or at least partly different,the receiver being configured to receive information relating to timingof a subsequent transmission of the service identification data and agiven frequency of the channel at which the subsequent transmission ofthe service identification data will occur; a controller configured toorder hierarchically services including the appropriate servicecomponents; and a display configured to display the different servicesets, services or service components, wherein the apparatus comprises amobile terminal.
 33. The apparatus as claimed in claim 32, wherein thereceiver is configured to receive service identification data relatingservice components at a given frequency to services and relatingservices at the given frequency to service sets.
 34. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 32, wherein the controller is configured to use dataitems describing the various service components to categorize receivedcontent items.
 35. The apparatus as claimed in claim 34, wherein thecontent items are categorized according to content type.
 36. Theapparatus as claimed in claim 32, wherein the apparatus is arranged tobe responsive to selection of a displayed service set, service orservice component, to tune to the correct channel at the appropriatetime when the selected service set, service or service component isbeing transmitted.